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The top four finishers in a remarkable men’s 71kg session all broke world records, and PRK’s formidable women’s team made it four from four at the IWF World Championships in Forde, Norway. The final tally of world records on the day was 16 – one junior and 15 senior.

Ri Suk (PRK)

Ri Suk broke records with four of her six good lifts at 63kg, in which she finished a long way clear of Canada’s double Olympic medallist Maude Charron. PRK will complete a five-from-five full house in the women’s events if Song Kuk Hyang wins at 69kg on Monday, which she is expected to do.  

Albert Delos Santos from the Philippines got the ball rolling with a junior world record in the 71kg afternoon B Group, and the real excitement came in the last 10 lifts of the evening.

He Yueji from China had bombed out in snatch at the 2023 World Championships, his last international competition before today. This time he broke the snatch world record twice, following up with two more records on total when he went five from six. But by the end he was hanging on to third place.

When he missed his final attempt on 188, finishing 160-184-344, four men still had a chance to overtake 23-year-old He. Two of them did it – first Masanori Miyamoto from Japan and then Weeraphon Wichuma from Thailand, who moved into the lead and stayed there.

Weeraphon Wichuma (THA)

The totals of the top five finishers were 346kg, 345kg, 344kg, 343kg and 342kg. The world record breakers who will not appear on the official lists, because their records did not last until the end of the session, were China’s He on total, Yusuf Fehmi Genc from Turkiye in clean and jerk, and Miyamoto in clean and jerk and total.

Wichuma, backed by a sizeable group of Thais who have settled locally, as well as his team-mates, made four good lifts for 152-194-346. Miyamoto, who was distraught after failing with his final attempt on 195kg, made 152-193-345.

Genc may rue the decision to go for 192kg on his final attempt, which gave him the lead in clean and jerk and second place behind He, but only for a few minutes. Genc finished fourth.

Masanori Miyamoto (JPN)

Ri Won Ju from PRK appeared to hurt his right knee when he missed his first clean and jerk on 190kg. He was clearly in pain after making it next time, but came back for more and was desperately close to a remarkable victory. Ri got 195kg above his head but lost his balance backwards and what might have been first place became fifth.

Sebastian Olivares, the 20-year-old Colombian who had set the clean and jerk world record at the Pan American Championships in July, was injured when he dropped the barbell on his first snatch attempt. He was taken to hospital but was said to be recovering well.

For 19-year-old Delos Santos, who won youth and junior world titles at lighter weights, his appearance in the B Group was his first in a senior competition.

What a start he made, topping the group with a junior world record in clean and jerk on 137-185-322 to finish eighth overall. In the back room the IWF president Mohammed Jalood was among the many well-wishers who congratulated Delos Santos and posed for photos with him.

Albert Delos Santos (PHI)

The teenager, who is in the second year of studying for a business degree, had been telling everyone he would make 185kg. “Promising to get a world record makes me sound cocky, which I’m not, but that was pretty special,” he said. “My big target here was making the top ten and hitting that 185.

“There’s plenty more improvement in me, and I know I need to find 15 kilos more in snatch. But things are going well. Now I have to go straight into preparing for the next big competition, the South East Asia Games in Thailand in two months.”

Asked which he would choose from a good business career or an Olympic medal, he replied, “Let’s go both.”

Ri finished 17kg clear of Charron, the Tokyo Olympic champion and Paris silver medallist, and 22kg ahead of third-placed Yenny Sinisterra from Colombia. She broke the snatch world record with her third lift, then posted clean and jerk and total world records with her next three, finishing 111-142-253.

Ri still has a way to go to match the “old” 63kg world record of 262kg set by the great Deng Wei from China in 2016. The category was in use from 1998 to 2018, but current world records must be set from June 1 this year when the categories changed.

Maude Charron (CAN)

Charron, 10 years older than Ri at 32, was delighted with her performance. It was the first time she bettered 130kg in clean and jerk, a target that had “become a bit of a mental barrier”.

She did it twice, making 131kg to take the lead, then 133kg, after which she glanced at her coaching team with a ‘What about that?’ look.  

“I finally got past 130kg – it must be the Norwegian air,” Charron said. “I really wanted to do well here because I love this place.”

Charron has been twice, to a test event and a training camp before the World Championships. “It’s a beautiful place. I’ve brought my hiking boots and I’ll be using them tomorrow… if I can still walk!”

Charron made 103-133-236, equalling her career-best total made at 59kg. Sinisterra finished 103-128-231, the same total as clean and jerk bronze medallist Elreen Ando from the Philippines, who was fourth because she got there after Sinisterra.

Two closely-matched Americans were fifth and sixth, Sophia Shaft on 101-126-227 from her two good lifts, and Katie Estep on 98-125-223 from three.

By Brian Oliver

Photos by Giorgio Scala/Deepbluemedia